France has turned away a prominent Israeli settler who landed at a Paris airport, causing a new diplomatic clash with the Israeli government, The National reported on Thursday.
The French Foreign Ministry confirmed that Yossi Dagan, the head of an Israeli government body that oversees the development of settlements in the occupied West Bank, was banned from entering France. Dagan was taken aside by border officials after landing at a Paris airport on Wednesday and told he could not enter because of his role in establishing 35 settlements in the northern West Bank and for promoting the re-establishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza, the Times of Israel reported.
The ministry said Dagan had played an "active role in implementing the policy of settlement in the West Bank," adding that "settlement activity is contrary to international law and undermines the two-state solution." The Israeli foreign ministry condemned the ban, describing it as "completely unacceptable."
The ban on Dagan had not previously been made public by French authorities. Since 2024, Paris has banned 59 Israelis linked to the settler movement, though most names remain undisclosed. The exceptions made public were bans on Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich in June and Itamar Ben-Gvir in May, with whom Dagan is closely aligned.
The bans have fuelled a long-simmering diplomatic spat between the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and France, as well as with other nations such as the Netherlands that have implemented similar policies. Relations soured when French President Emmanuel Macron last year led the recognition of a Palestinian state alongside 10 other Western nations.
